Towers of Power
A Pro Wrestling Podcast hosted by three friends who love professional wrestling and sports entertainment. They will be reviewing current wrestling product, fantasy booking and sharing personal stories from attending numerous wrestling shows.
Towers of Power
F&@$ IT! We are here and All Elite!
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According to Mr. Tony Khan we are officially All Elite but did we change our format becasue of it? We review the MAJOR title change on RAW and will it work? Jey Uso is all over TMZ, Sheamus is out of WWE, and we review our AEW field trip.
How was that, Gary? You wanted to start this podcast? Yeah, he said, fuck it. Let's just start it. Oh, yes. Yes, I did. I said, fuck it. Let's go, Gary. Yeah, fuck it. Hi again, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Towers of Power, a pro wrestling podcast. We were off last week, technically, but technically we weren't. We were working. We did work. And we put out a phenomenal podcast. In case you missed it, you got to go back and listen to it. With the one and the only Mr. Tony Khan, the owner and CEO of All Elite Wrestling AEW. And look, looks like you're still in revolution back there and you're backdropping. You are. I am you know why? Why? Because we're all elite. Tony Khan did say that we are all elite. He's all this podcast is all elite. He said, You Towers of Power podcasts are all elite. That doesn't mean that we're getting paid from them. So maybe one day down the road? I don't know. I tried pitching it to him, like, hey, listen, like, let us be your official podcast. Yes, they do have the they do have an official podcast, but I feel like they need something a little bit more. Yeah. So it's and it's uh done by, I believe, what's the referee? Um Aubrey. Aubrey is the host. Oh, no shit. Yeah, along with I can't remember who the other counterpart is, but yes, they do have a podcast that does review AEW. So check them out on yes, on Apple, I believe. I know. I'm saying there's more, there's room for more than just two people. I mean, we could have a whole cast, you know? Yeah, you know, cast of characters, cast of characters, yes. Yeah. Characters. All right, so we didn't get to keep recap uh night of champions that happened. Of course, by now you all know that Oba Femi is King of the Ring, Queen of the Ring is Eosky. Yes. We saw that Sami Zayn won the WWE championship. You know, crazy. I mean, the crowd went nuts. Everybody on in the internet and social media.
SPEAKER_01As a heel, and then people flipped, or like, let's go. Interesting.
SPEAKER_00Just because I think it's like it's so you know, out of left park or left field and left park, yeah. Yeah, all the parts too.
SPEAKER_01Come on, get those get those sports references going.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, sorry, sports people. All out of left park and right park and the middle fields and the the touchdowns that they were ringing.
SPEAKER_01I see where you're going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you see what I'm saying? But this is my background right now, because we do this on Zoom, just in case you don't know. Uh, but my background is of the Survivor series that happened at Petco Park, Dominic Mysterio's entrance. So shout out to uh to Dom. Who by the way. By the way, Dom posted that uh he is getting a brand new Mattel's retro action figure. And so I commented, I DM'd him, I'm like, yo, I need one of these, like ASAP, and he just liked the comment. So I was like, damn. Soof. I said you used to get replies, now you're just getting a little quick double tap. I got I got a heart though. I was like, oh man. Dang, so that means I'm not gonna get one from him. Okay, all right. I just gotta go find it. I gotta go find it on the main.
SPEAKER_01We might not even get him back in the podcast. Uh no, we will, we will, for sure, for sure.
SPEAKER_00Um, all right, so uh that was pretty much the recap of Night of Champions. Sami Zayn uh really just being the shock heard around the world. And nobody really kind of knew exactly where WWE was going for with this because we all thought, you know, you and I thought that it was gonna be Cody winning again and retaining the championship and moving forward. We also thought that it was gonna be uh Jay to some degree winning the King of the Ring because we thought that Brock Lesnar was gonna come out. That didn't happen. So a lot of curveballs that we had thought was gonna be like thrown our way didn't just happen, which kind of made it more fun to look back and be like, okay, yeah, cool. All right, where are they gonna go with this? And Triple H has come out numerous times recently and has said to the critics, to the fans, we got this. Like, just stop. Because there is a lot of expectation from us wrestling fans. I've said that numerous times on these podcasts, where we expect to go ahead and have things already done, but now with him saying this, I kind of feel like I feel relieved. I feel like finally they're taking charge of the situation that they're throwing themselves in and really uh navigating the waters. What do you think about all that?
SPEAKER_01I mean, we've got this, it's a new era. Like we we've heard a lot of this stuff before. Yeah, a new era has begun. Yeah, so I guess it's a again, it's another wait and see. Um, I don't I think we talked about it real quick the other day when we were at AEW that I watched the Paul Heyman CVV. Um, you said you fell asleep a couple times. I actually loved it. I mean, two hours and eight minutes, I I loved it, but um, not to take up too much time on the interview, but Heyman did hint at it's like we have things set, something that might happen this week, it's because we know what's gonna happen in six months to a year from now. We know how to play the long game, so they are still doing that long storytelling. And yes, we're gonna consistently see things that we as fans don't want to see, but Triple H said, we got this, we got it all figured out.
SPEAKER_00So And I think going back to Paul Heyman, I don't I don't believe him, but sure. Yeah, going back to Paul Heyman, the interview with CVV, I did fall asleep just because it was so long. It was just like, you know, when Paul Paul is a very smart individual, and with his his words are a little bit too uh educated for me. So when he starts talking, and I'm like, bro, just break it down. He's like, because you see, the architect, I'm like, oh fuck, you already lost me.
SPEAKER_01Like you I like I like that he was like himself, he wasn't the advocate, he was not the um the wise man, he was Paul Heyman, which was great because we've seen other interviews and he's still doing his shtick. Yeah, and this was nice that he was sitting down, like, no, this is how I felt when Brock beat Taker to, you know, that then I created the one behind the one and 21 and one. Like, yeah, he broke it down as himself, which was really cool to see. But he's like, we know the future, we know what's happening, we have things planned out. Triple H is better, there's probably the best person suited for this position because he knows what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00And I will say, yes, with Paul, I have actually uh have I've had I believe two interviews with Paul, and they've been Heyman or LeBette? Uh with Heyman. Oh, okay. Yes, I've I've interviewed Paul Heyman at a SummerSlam media uh event, and that was in Los Angeles, where um it was funny because like they set up all this stuff for me, right? Okay, let me let me just kind of give you the backstory. It was happening at Lucky Strike Lanes, which was across from the staple center, which is now crypto.com. I don't I don't even know if Lucky Strike is still there, and it was bowling alley. They took over the whole like little area and they divided it, they piped and draped it for like five or six different radio stations. One of them being Rock from San Diego, which we all know, and I'm good friends with all of them, and one of them was me. And I was representing my station that I worked for in Los Angeles, which was with the Ryan Seacrest show. So I had Ryan Seacrest mic flags and stuff like that. And so I was the only one though back then doing video. Nobody else was doing video, and this is maybe 2011, 12, somewhere around there. And I'm like, okay, cool, I'm I'm gonna do this. I could be like mistaken with my years, but um, I believe it was I don't want to say it was Asina Brock, but I'm just trying to remember that day I interviewed Seamus, Dolph Ziggler, and Vicky, Paul Heyman, AJ Lee. Um, and I sounds like that within that year that we know. And then it was Kofi, Kofi and R Truth were the tag team champions. So I was doing, yeah, I know, right? I was doing uh backstage or you know, interviews there on on camera. Everybody else was doing like, you know, audio. I was there with a three-camera setup, something that they hadn't seen before. Um, yes, and and I made my little area because they pretty much give you a table and and they gave you some of the action figures and stuff like that to like, you know, uh, you know, get you in the mood and stuff, uh, you know, to kind of like, okay, hey, you're here, you're you're in, you know, WrestleMania or SummerSlam, you know, kind of feel the vibe. So I made it seem like it was like a full-on TV set. So I I put I put yeah, I put a couple things up and and I made like the the display so it looked like I was actually like you know selling the figures and stuff like that. It was really cool. And so when Paul Heyman came up, uh he looked at the mic flag and it said Ryan Secrets. He's like, Wait, wait, hold on, hold on. Where's Ryan Seacrest at? And I'm like, Oh, you didn't know uh uh I'm actually Ryan. He's like, Are you the Latino Ryan Secret? I was like, Yes, yes, yes, I am. And then we got into the interview and it was a good interview, and I felt it was great. But the thing is with the CVV interview, I just I just felt that they went into too much detail a little bit for me, where I just kind of like snoozed off a little bit. Maybe I gotta give it another chance. Maybe I was just so tired from that day. Yeah, so I definitely want to go head back and and watch it because there are things I definitely did miss that I want to go ahead and hear. So um, yeah, it's worth it, it's definitely worth it.
SPEAKER_01It's it is long, it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00So yeah. So um you know can you do you still have that interview with them? You know what? I believe I do. I have to find it. I think I did pull all my interviews because I remember with Vicky and Dolph, like I said, screw it. So I started the interview and they were late. I said, fuck it. So is that gonna be the title of this podcast? Fuck it. Yeah, it's like you almost sound like the old school game Bop It. Bop it. Bop it, skip it, fuck it. Or maybe not. Wow, wow. Oh my god, Gary. Wow. Uh all right. That's Gary. Yep, there you go. That's a Gary, that's a Gary quote right there. Put that on a t-shirt too. Um, yeah, if I do find it, I will definitely put it up. But it's funny because so they the WWE told me, like, hey, Vicky and Dolph are gonna come. I said, okay, great. And I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna just start this, you know, like I'm doing like a stand-up, like, you know, hey everybody, don't forget, you know, uh SummerSlam Live on pay-per-view, blah blah blah blah. So I start doing the whole promo, like the old school wrestling, like I'm there, like me and Gene. Yeah, right. And I told them, I'm like, when they're ready, just tell them to come on in. I'm like, because I'm like, I just wanted something different on camera. So I'm like, just have them walk in. I'm like, I told WWE, have them walk in and grab the mic. And they're like, okay. So I'm doing it, and like Vicky's just kind of like standing off to the side, and I'm like, oh, and I felt like me and Gene Oakland back in the day. I'm like, oh, and welcome my guests at this time. They are making their way in. I'm like waving them in, like, get the fuck in here. And and then they they walked in and and we we talked about uh their match that they had coming up. I don't remember. Jeez, I cannot remember the SummerSlam for the life of me. But uh yeah, I I will definitely find that and I will I will post up something of it. Uh maybe give me next week. Give me next week, and we'll post up one of those interviews. How about that?
SPEAKER_04Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_00All right. So uh speaking of the people that I did interview, they're Seamus, and speaking about Seamus, word is that Seamus is gonna be gone from WWE. If not, he's already gone. Yeah, because I think I did hear reports that once he said no to re-signing the restructured deal with TKO, they said that he is gone immediately. Uh, did you hear that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I heard that, yeah, that he is he's officially done. People have tweeted at him. Drew McIntyre's posted, and we treated old photos of them and emojis and this and that. And yeah, it's it sucks. It's like you're really not a uh um a lifer anymore with this company. It's it's it's tough to see obviously New Day Shamus. Like you're gonna see these guys, they're not at the end of their careers, right? Right. Um, so they're gonna go elsewhere, and where's the best place to go as of right now? It's AEW.
SPEAKER_00Holy wrestling.
SPEAKER_01So I mean, does Sheamus go to jump ship over there? Does he have a 90-day um no compete? Um, or does yeah, or does it show up um at the at their next big pay-per-view and maybe align with the death death riders with uh Claudio? The bar.
SPEAKER_00Well, now here's yeah, well, here's the other thing. Yeah, really I don't know. You gotta remember, so that next pay-per-view, I believe, is happening in Canada, right? For for AE. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. We saw the banners for the big rumor was that's you know, Edge is Adam Copeland's last match, so that he wanted to retire there. And so uh I don't know, that was the rumor that I heard months ago. So maybe something comes up where Sheamus was the last person he fought in WWE. Don't forget about that. So maybe Seamus makes that run in and and screws him out of whatever the match is, or does something, you know, along those lines. But no, they could definitely pick up the storyline, and I would love to see Seamus. I'm I I would like to see what his name is gonna be. Is it gonna be Seamus? Yeah, Sheamus, Sheamus O'Malley.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, it's funny, it's just like I feel like I feel like Tony Khan has no problem with continuing WWE storylines or like hinting at it. Yeah, and WWE's like, nope, nope, you came from AEW, you're getting a new name, you're getting this. Like, they want a new gimmick, they don't want anything, which is crazy because there's such like now, like when you really like look at the landscape of WWE. Um, you want to mix in TNA, triple A, NXT. There's so many people coming from all different areas that have these stories with either current people on the roster, or you're bringing in people that have had history with people on TNA that's a WWE. It's it's like there's so much more that you can do, and they're just not doing it because they want to just keep it separate. Like, nope, he's the he or she is these are our people now, this is their storyline, this is where they're gonna start now. And it's just like, why are we starting from scratch? They kind of did it with LA Knight, they almost kind of erased the whole Eli Drake thing and kind of went from there. And I guess you haven't listened to with CVV, you gotta go listen to uh LA Knight. But um, but yeah, um, we've seen some people in NXT get the get the call up um or be brought in, and it's like it's a whole new new look. Like, yeah, I'll take evil, for example. Naroku, I think Naruk N Naraku, I think they renamed him. Um, and he was doing he did something a couple weeks ago, and right on Twitter, everyone's just like, Who the hell is this guy? I've never seen him laugh and be so charismatic and all this stuff. Like, this is not this the evil character that we're used to.
SPEAKER_00Like, they've they've NXT'd him. Well, because remember what we had said too, that's the reason why Alistair Black is gone, is because that TKO doesn't want these like evil looking characters, and you did take you said something on the podcast, and I didn't catch it until going back and listening to it. I'm like, What did you just say? So you had said, like, I was like, Well, look at that, they're bringing in some guy named Evil. You're like, Yeah, but you flip evil and it spells love, and I was like, Yeah, and we kept moving on. I'm like, that isn't there's that does not spell love backwards. No, it's it spells life, evil, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it was an Eminem lyric that I always remember hearing like way back in the day. It's I forget what song. I think it's like Spaceman or Rocket Man or something. It's Spaceman, MM song, and it says a tattoo on his on his wrist says evil. I guess he's pronouncing it weird with E V O L and he spelled it backwards, it says love. So I just said it in the moment. I'm like, as soon as I said, I'm like, okay, cool.
SPEAKER_00He didn't hear me because I said, No, I didn't hear you, but now I did, like weeks later. So I was like, this motherfucker over here thinking I'm slow. Yes, I am slow, but still, you know, I get you out.
SPEAKER_01I get you. Yeah, but yeah, so anyway, circling back, yes, Seamus. 19 years with the company. Unfortunately, he's out. So again, there's no more lifers. We're gonna see this more with our veterans. Is Orton gonna be the next to go?
SPEAKER_00Like, I think Orton will definitely be the next one to go. He he's gonna be the next big name because look at his, you know, he's out right now with an injury. You know, he got hurt going into WrestleMania, and and I think it was just a small movement with his back again that happened, and unfortunately, it kind of sidelined him. So it's like, you know, when Paul Heyman says that we've had these things planned for six months in advance, what do you do during that plan? Like you have to have a backup plan for a backup plan. Because it's like you have to you look at uh Bronson Reed, they didn't expect him to get hurt, you know, Braun Breaker, you know, even even Logan Paul to some degree. You don't plan for these things, and when you do, that's when the scrambling happens, and that's where they're really fumbling the ball because they don't have a backup plan, even though they say, oh yeah, well, this was planned six months ago. Now, kind of fast forward into Monday Night Raw, we all saw what happened. In case you don't know, CM Punk is a new WWE heavyweight champion of the world, or what is Undisputed. Yeah, I forget what the titles are. Is the WWE championship or the other one?
SPEAKER_01It's the WWE Undisputed, is the SmackDown one, and then the world heavyweight on Raw. So he's the WWE champion. WWE Undisputed Champion. Okay. CM Pump.
SPEAKER_00CM Pump.
SPEAKER_01Take it off. Sammy Zayn, nine days. Yeah. I don't think we got to see enough of heal or or whatever this version of Sammy was as champion. Because I liked it. I I was starting to play, okay, he can actually do something because he was like, I could tell all of you that didn't believe me to kiss my ass, but I'm not. Like he did it a couple of times, like, okay, I kind of like this, but I don't think we got to see enough of him. I think Hunter and I think they all heard the fans being like, Great, here comes Cody with another title shot. Like, you're not gonna have him lose. So, what did they do at the beginning of Raw? They had which again was stupid. I don't understand, I I understand it now why this title was defended on Raw when it's a Smackdown title with SmackDown Superstar.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you tweeted that, right?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, all over it, all over it. Towers power pod. Towers power pod um on X. Um, but it's just it was like, okay, cool, great. Now he's taken out. Who's gonna be the mystery opponent? So of course I'm thinking maybe it's gonna be Gunther, but and then oh, he was kicked out, and I was like, This is this is ridiculous, it makes no sense. But then as soon as people started chanting, I'm like, okay, I didn't see anything, but I was like, okay, we all know Punk was coming back sooner or later. Yeah. I kind of thought he was gonna come back on Monday. Did I think that he'd be in a fight for the championship? Absolutely not, right? Yeah, did I think he was gonna actually come out on top winning the championship? I mean, you're in Chicago. Yeah. That was the shitty part. Is it's like they're not gonna have him lose in Chicago, but now this sucks for this whole Sammy storyline as champion. And but to see his um his almost like a mental breakdown that he had at the uh WWE. Oh I loved it. I love that amazing. So cool to see what they're gonna do. But then what I also tweeted out was we're talking about all these veterans that are just not either not taking pay cuts or kind of done. And I said, Maybe Sammy is one of the next to go. Where that was WWE saying, thanks for 25 years of wrestling career, or 20 years or whatever it might be. This is basically the one title that's eluded you. You've done everything that we've asked of you. Um here you go. Here's here's your here's your title, here's the championship. They can never take it away from you. It's on your resume, if you will. Okay, think we had enough. We're gonna give it to CM Punk. And uh, we're gonna go the road to SummerSlam, where it's probably gonna be Punk versus Cody, all this stupid shit for your QP1. And um, I think that's where fans are getting tired of of Cody. We're just they're just throwing them down our throats. It sucks. It's what they're we've talked about this multiple times. It's what they did with with Roman back in the day until Roman went away, came back, and found himself during COVID. Um, but yeah, so we'll see what comes.
SPEAKER_00So in case you missed these uh the uh aftermath of Sami Zayn breaking down, here is Sami Zayn backstage after losing the championship on Monday Night Raw. Well, that's pretty much it, him having that mental breakdown. Uh, I loved wherever this is, but I I felt it very real. I felt it very raw. Um you know, and yeah, I would be upset too if I was him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's almost it's like as much as I want to believe everything he said, um, but WWE posted it. So it's it's it's one of those if Sammy, I think it's one thing if Sammy posted it, and then we never saw anyone retweet it like from WWE. I'm like, oh shit, this shit's real.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, but the fact that WWE posted it or retweeted or whatever, I'm like, all right. I love that they allowed him to say motherfucker. Um but still I'm like, I feel for him. Um it's kind of getting me back into seeing kind of like what else like what's to come on SmackDown um and what the fallout's going to be. Um it just still sucks that it's punk so quickly and everyone's calling punk the hypocrite, where you know you come back after all this time and you're thrown to a title match and you win because he's called other people out on that. So We'll see. I mean there there was more things that happened on Raw. But yeah, it's it's tough to uh I'm excited that Punk now had that belt. I think that's the belt that we're all excited to see him get, but they take it off of Roman, not off of Sammy.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, I I don't know. Yeah, so like where do they go with Sammy's Avermeir? Is he done?
SPEAKER_01I think it depends if if and when Kevin Owens is coming back. And I say this because this can go two ways. Sammy is now against punk, against all of the stuff. Maybe he's going back to the bloodline. Okay. Maybe Kevin Owens comes back, aligns himself with Sammy. They don't like punk, they've never liked punk. They kind of do their thing with punk and whoever else. The bloodline thing I think might be where like the next move for Sammy, sadly. Because we're slowly seeing them redevelop this whole bloodline. So Sammy's pissed off at the world. Bloodline hates, has always hated CM Punk. He hates CM Punk now. Hey, let's get rid of him. Kind of something. I I don't know exactly, but I think it can go to a couple a couple different ways. Is he done? That's up to TKO. I don't know if they've all if they've asked him to take a pay cut. I don't know if that was his swan song with the title. Like a thank you? Yeah, and that's again, that's kind of what I'm thinking.
SPEAKER_00What about this? What about this? What about when Kevin Owens comes back? Yeah, it's Sammy, Kevin Owens, and they form this faction that's just disgruntled, that has been screwed over by CM Punk in some way or another, or been screwed over by the company, and now they're like the degenerates, almost like the new version of the NWO, but not really. So you got him, you got Kevin Owens, you throw in Drew McIntyre, because you know how much McIntyre hates CM Punk, you throw in like somebody else, like maybe like somebody like a like a Rusev or something.
SPEAKER_01LA Knight.
SPEAKER_00LA Knight, somebody like that. I don't know. And you have you have a new faction that you could go ahead and and cause a ruckus. And you know, because you had the vision that we all thought was gonna be gone, but now they're not. Uh, we have the bloodline, and I feel like you need something else.
SPEAKER_01So it's almost I think it's hard to almost do these factions with the older crew, if you will. I don't think so. I think people just don't buy it. And I think they all have always turned heel on each other, or no matter who they get parroted, they're always gonna flip. It's like you need something like the vision where you have these young superstars that are coming up, and that people take them out like individually one by one. But I like what you're saying, it's a good idea. You're disgruntled degenerates, you're disgruntled old men.
SPEAKER_00You're grumpy old men, grumpy old men. Wow. Now come to the ring, grumpy old men.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't know. I mean, what do you think? Is Sammy done? Does he have more of a storyline? No, I think there's more of a storyline.
SPEAKER_00It's just it's too good right now.
SPEAKER_01What's the reason behind him dropping the title? Like, that's I think that's what I really want to know.
SPEAKER_00We all know the honest truth is big the honest truth is to have a bigger match at SummerSlam.
SPEAKER_01It kind of goes back to like because he's not a money guy, from what I've read a lot. Is that that quote kind of has been floating around the last couple of days? That was WWE didn't see Sammy as the big money guy, meaning he's not gonna turn heads, he's not gonna bring people in, which is why they took the belt off him. But going back even further, what was the point of the King of the Ring tournament and the Queen of the Ring? I mean we get it, but there's no fucking point in the King of the Ring tournament. Oba Femi won, he decided to go, he wants to go face Brock at Hell in the Cell at SummerSlam. Umso could have been the winner of King of the Ring, but he's not.
SPEAKER_00Um he's got his own battles.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Seth lost in the first round, which we're gonna get into. Yep. Seth lost in the first round at King of the Ring, but he's getting the title shot at SummerSlam.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um yeah, it just it it's it made like well, maybe maybe maybe they're saving Obus title shot for the next pay-per-view, right?
SPEAKER_01I think they want to give him like play the long game, but then like for WrestleMania or something, then but then why have him win in the first place? Just uh it's too long add that to his resume. He can do that next year, he's not going anywhere. Yeah, like these are some of the things that that um that um what's his name? Paul Heyman talked about in the podcast too. It's like he's not going anywhere, yeah. But it's like then the why even have him win the tournament? You should have had Brock come in and fuck it up and give it to Jay, and then here's your storyline. Is Jay gonna go after Cody, or is Jay gonna say fuck it and go after Roman and fuck up the whole bloodline? Like, there's more to do that way than anything else. So uh yeah, uh who am I? Um we're we're just podcasters there.
SPEAKER_00We're all elite podcasters. Don't forget that. Do not forget that. Tony Khan said it in the last interview that we had with him, our last podcast. Check it out right now. Um, all right.
SPEAKER_01So you can hit the little button and you can just say it.
SPEAKER_00I know, I'll I'll get that for the next next show. Um, so one other thing that we have to talk about on Monday Night Raw was the shocking flip and I guess uh double crossing of Maxine Dupree. Yep, causing the Street Profits, the WWE tag team champions, um, you know, they dropped the titles to the vision after only a couple weeks. After that's another one where I'm like, uh, why? But um I saw you tweet out something about this whole thing. Yes, and and what was that, Gary?
SPEAKER_01That from what I've read and heard is that Bianca and also um oh my god Dawkins' wife, sorry, um, that they are close to being due because they're both pregnant. Oh, they're both close to being due. I don't know if one's close than the other, and that both of the guys might want uh paternity leave or just want to be there for the birth. So it just made sense, I guess, in their words, to take the titles off of them now. Um, that way they can be close to their wives um when the time comes for them to give birth. Um, but I mean, I still hate it. I still think that they should have kept it. And hey, once they're both proud parents, figure it out. Yeah, you know, figure it out. They go away for two weeks. Like we've had people who have been injured that have been champions and they haven't taken the belt off. We haven't seen them in three months, so it's stupid. I personally thought that Bronson Reed was gonna come back and he was going to be the tag runner of Austin Theory. I didn't expect Breaker to still be in this. Um, you hinted at it that we thought the vision was done. I think we all kind of did. Um, we saw the flip of Maxine, which is awesome. Definitely threw me off and probably the entire world off that she was kissing Austin Theory after they won.
SPEAKER_00That's what I want to talk about because you also tweeted that, and and a lot of people are upset about that. It's weird. Tell tell people why, if case you don't know why you're upset or what people are saying.
SPEAKER_01So um Maxine is married to NXT superstar Cam Hendricks, aka real name Anthony Luke. Um, they got married what in December of 2025. Um, they've been posting pictures, you know, they're on their honeymoon, they're doing this, they're they're still married. That was the first thing. I think I tried to uh tweet at uh Anthony Luke, like uh all good at home. Like, because you look at it where we know that she's married to this person. Not everybody does because they've never talked about it on WWE, never, not once. I I say that now, but I feel like I remember them doing something on NXT a very long time ago or Evolve or something. I could be wrong, I could be making this up, but they've never spoken about it. They being the commentators or anything, I've ever spoken about Maxine being married to someone in the company that I know of on Monday Night Raw. So it just made it seem like these are two single people that are now attached and dating. But it did throw me off that they were kissing, and I'm shocked that Maxine went for it, that I'm sure she had to clear it with her husband and Austin Theory that they were all good with it. Like, I mean, I think you can see it better with uh it's gonna be bad, but see it better when Lita and Matt Hardy were together and she's sucking face with Edge. They're older. I mean, I don't know. Maybe I it obviously all broke down very differently.
SPEAKER_00Right, that's a different story, too. But you gotta look at the I'm trying to think of like others that like Vic Vicky Guerrero and Edge. Didn't they ever kiss or something?
SPEAKER_01I mean, even Dirty Dom and Live, yeah, you know, they don't they're hard, they did it like once or twice, and then everything else is like they did it once, yeah, at SummerSlam. And that's it. Yeah, and they've been doing this whole shtick for ever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So what was more surprising? Was it was it the fact that you know the backstory or the fact that they played it off like they were two single people? Because you tweeted you were a little bit of both. I felt like you were like very angry, like well from the tweet, and I was like, Oh, okay. Like it was more like how could you just get married? I was like, oh, okay. You have to remember though, this is this is this is sports entertainment, it's entertainment at the end of the day, right?
SPEAKER_01But I do understand people in their 20s now stuck in fakes or 30s, uh, whatever, however old they are.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I do understand the fact that yes, that sometimes you know the the fantasy bleeds into reality. Yeah, and I do understand that, but I would hope that they are professional enough just to do it and then just be done with it. And it looks like from you know, I I saw it again, like I was like, Oh, okay, cool. That's that's what it was. All right. So to me, I don't know. And there's you know, I think I I believe Austin is also involved with somebody too.
SPEAKER_01I'm not I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I I think I think I think he is dating somebody currently.
SPEAKER_01I think he could have done everything the way they did it without adding that kiss to it, but I also think the kiss helped kind of solidify what's going on. It definitely helps the storyline, which is great. Because the best part is you see them kiss, and then you kind of look to the side and breaker's like, oh, like I don't know how real that reaction was, but fucking hysterical. He's holding the belt, he's like, Oh, okay. He's like, Oh, this is what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00Oh, my fault. This is getting aired on television. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like as they're walking up the ramp, and that was his face, but I thought you could get to the back, and and Heyman's kind of like, good job, you yeah, kind of like low-key, we're back. Yeah, but at the same time, I was really hoping Bronson Reed was gonna come back, he was gonna be tagged tag champ with him. Let Bron Breaker reinvent himself. He's he's gotta figure something out because him and Seth are quote unquote, they are now done. Yeah, they have that that match was actually a low-key banger at Knight of Champions, that Steel Cage match where Seth Rollins won. You gotta watch it. Yeah, you should. Um, but now it's kind of like okay, where did where does Breaker go from here?
SPEAKER_00But I heard on Netflix they they blurred out his face. Yes, which is like, yo, like I can watch more gruesome stuff on Netflix than just this this steel cage match. I'm sorry, but like I could look and watch this other thing and this documentary of this person getting cut open and all this other crap.
SPEAKER_01But on Netflix and watch people have sex, and nope, you're just blurring out a little cut with some blood.
SPEAKER_00Yep, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Stupid.
SPEAKER_00Um, all right, you want to talk about Jay Uso and what's happening with him? We made it all over TMZ and well, not sorry, not we, but he made it all over TMZ.
SPEAKER_01If TMZ is talking about it, I think we can talk about it. Yeah, go ahead, Gary. Of 12 years has filed for divorce. Um, I personally thought he has been divorced this entire time. Me too. Or just not married. I had no idea that he even was married to begin with. Yep. Um, you know, we've seen him out with NXT superstar Jada Parker for quite some time. Um, I thought their rumor was that they were officially dating. Now I don't know. Um, but Uso tweeted out, I'm a grown ass man, and at the bottom he said, Leave uh leave her the fuck out of this. Or I don't know who that her is. I don't know if he's just saying leave my wife's name out of your mouth or leave Jada Parker's name out of your mouth. He's a grown-ass man, he's gonna do grown ass man things. So yeah, well, uh he was I was I don't think he was even on Raw because though everything broke that day on Monday. Oh, did it? And I don't think I remember seeing him on Raw. Couldn't tell you. I don't remember, but yeah, it was definitely that day because I was like, oh, let's see if anything comes of it. But yeah, yeah, 12 years. Um, and uh yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, very interesting how that just broke all over TMZ. I'm like, why TMZ out of everywhere is picking this up?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, should have been us, but you know, we're all elite.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. And speaking about all elite, let's go ahead and recap our time with all elite wrestling right here in San Diego. They taped collision and dynamite back to back. What a night. It was a very long night. Let's just you know, we're not gonna sugarcoat anything. It was a very long day of wrestling, and it was it was good, but it just it just was dragging in it. We'd started what time did we get there? Like at 3 30.
SPEAKER_01You and I met that like three, yeah. We got down to like at 3 30, got some food, slowly made our way over, and then yeah, but everything started at 4 30, right?
SPEAKER_00Well, technically they said 4 30, right? Yeah, 4 45. We saw a dark match match and with uh Steven Borden, you know, Sting's son. Yeah, so that was actually a really great match, and we saw that, and then um we saw that match, and then we saw uh what else did we see? I think that was it, and then they were leading everything up to dynamite, and dynamite was great. I gotta tell you this. Yeah, and this is one of the things that we didn't get a chance to talk to Tony Khan about, but I really wanted to get his take on it was that I always feel that his his week to weeks are great matches, but then the pay-per-views kind of lead to like whatever, and or vice versa, but at the same time, it's just like you how like how do you how do you one up the previous week? Yeah, and it's so hard because like you set the bar so high, which is great for wrestling fans, but at the same time, it's uh it's a little overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yep, I will give you that.
SPEAKER_00But we saw a banger, like what the first match was for yeah, Briscoe and uh MJF for the World Heavyweight Championship. Yeah, so much blood.
SPEAKER_01Oh much blood. So blurred out, but so much blood.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's like you know, I had uh our friend Rob, uh his sister Jim was like, Why is there so much blood? Like there's too much blood, it's unnecessary. Um yeah, you know, but I think that's the style. You know, it's kind of reminds me of the XP is XPW, you know, back in the day, kind of reminds me of that and in slash ECW. So that's kind of like the angle that I felt with this match. I thought overall dynamite was great. Yeah, I thought it was very entertaining.
SPEAKER_01We were we were in it, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's the thing too. Like every time we go to these AEW shows, we really enjoy it. Um, like we might not know the storylines, but the wrestling is so good, it's so entertaining. Um, so overall, uh you know, big shout out to oh, Oscar and Noah had some amazing signs that they made for us, the Towers of Power Pro Wrestling Podcast. It was on HBO Max on TV on social media. Yep. I mean, I saw it all over the place. I was like, wow, there we are.
SPEAKER_01Huge shout out to them. Thank you so much for making those posts.
SPEAKER_00I that post was and Oscar did it in the morning of, which is amazing. And and like I have to we'll we'll we'll put a picture up on our Instagram at Towers of PowerPod. And you know, we took a picture with them afterwards, and the sign itself, hand drawn, just everything, just colored in with marker, like he takes his time, but at the same time, like, dude, how did you do this in a few hours? I was just I was just blown away by seeing it. It was just it was great. Um, but overall, AEW, we I enjoyed the show, I thought it was great. You know, then it went into collision, the taping of collision because they were off for July 4th, and that's kind of where it started dragging on. And that's where I'm just like, okay, this this show needs to end. It's way too long. I got to see a lot more wrestlers that I didn't get to see on Dynamite on Collision, which is great. We got to see uh Copeland, that's who I really wanted to see. Saw him there because that's probably in my mind, that's the last time I'll probably see him live, unless I fly up to Canada, or if AUW wants to take care of our travel to Canada, you know, I am all about it. Uh we cover it there. But you know, I thought it was very cool to be a part of you know something special like that. I just don't I just don't know if you need that much wrestling back to back.
SPEAKER_01It's it was a lot. I think it was cool. Again, you said dynamite, amazing. So in our heads, I remember we kept looking at our watches. Okay, if this dynamite, it's live. We know it's going to be done at uh uh seven o'clock east coast west coast time. We started a five two-hour show. Like, cool, all right. Then they're gonna be recording um uh collision. That's I believe it's another two-hour show. Boom, we'll be done by nine fifteen match, right? What time we walk out of there? Like 10:15.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 1015.
SPEAKER_01All they kept doing, they kept adding these little freaking matches here and there. I'm like, what's being recorded, what's not? Like, I actually meant to watch collision and I didn't to see if they actually showed the entire show because during dynamite, it showed like four, uh, maybe five matches that we were going to see on collision. We're like, oh fuck, this is gonna be this collision's gonna be really good. Here's more people that we were looking forward to see, like the guns, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. That was our new thing. Um, just to see like all these, you know, these number one contender matches for some gauntlet match. Um, but yeah, they just kept adding more mini five to seven-minute matches, and like that shit adds up. That's why another 30-35 minutes matches we didn't know was gonna happen. But the upside and downside to AEW is that they do put on some great matches. That yes, I think we are just from how you and I have talked, we are just so prone to the WWE programming where there's a whole lot of talking that's pretty damn good, and then they are some quick ass matches. Yeah, AEW, they are totally flipped. They could have 20 25-minute matches with some talking, but a lot of the talking does not make sense to you and I because we don't know the storylines. But fuck, man, there is a lot of wrestling. There, there are quick, you know, there might be some two and three-quarter counts. You're like, okay, why, why, why, why, why wasn't there a finish right there? Yeah, like it's just been going on for so long, but they are entertaining. That's the thing that they're so entertaining, but they are also this is so long.
SPEAKER_00It and it's still yeah, it's so long to the fact where I it just kind of makes it unbearable. And I felt so bad because when the when the last superstars were wrestling on collision, the arena pretty much became empty. It looked like a ghost town. And and luckily for them, they had extra wrestlers that were dressed in regular clothes, and they sent them to go fill out the seats that were empty that were on TV. So, you know, luckily for that, but at the same time, I'm just like, this is why. Because once again, like the ticket prices are great for families. This is something the family could all go and see, all elite wrestling.com, to get to get your tickets. But I will say, I will say this the problem is when you go that late, that's when the kids start getting restless, and the parents don't want to deal with it, and then they have to leave.
SPEAKER_01So we talked about this a lot. Like we did 4:30, it starts. So already right there, you're already either you're not pulling your kids out of school, but you might be saying, I'm gonna come get you early because you probably need to do your homework, but we're gonna go to wrestling. But then they're not getting a dinner, so they're eating whatever shit at at the arena. They have school the next day, they're you know, but again, it is family friendly for what it is. But I think you know, as adults, you know, working class people too, it's just it's very long. So to sit in Vieja Arena for five hours, five plus hours, it's a lot, and yeah, as the matches on collision went, more and more people in our section, because we were camera side, so it's gotta be awkward and sucks for those wrestlers who are doing these hits at that camera, and they're kind of like, Oh my god, there's like a camera and like 12 people, yeah. But the other side, yes, all the seat fillers, they they made it still look packed. Um, but you know, after you get to like row 20 on the other side of the ring where you're seeing the fans, it's you know, it's all red seats in VS Arena, and you're you are seeing every single one of those open red seats. So yeah, I don't I don't know how to change it. Maybe you're just not doing two shows back to back, but I get it, it was a special thing because of the 4th of July uh weekend to give them some breaks.
SPEAKER_00But like I told you, the way they should have done it was the way that WWF used to run their shows, which was Sunday Night Heat, Monday Night Raw, and then back to Sunday Night Heat. So, what they would do is they would take the beginning of heat, okay, and then that'd be like the first like let's say they start at 4 30. So 4 30, first bell, there you go. It's the beginning of Sunday Night Heat, and then the Switch to the ring skirts for Monday Night Raw. Yeah. Tape Raw or go live on the USA network for Monday Night Raw. Once Raw was off the air, boom, switched everything back up and picked it up back up for a Sunday night heat. I remember that's how they used to do it. Maybe that's something that they don't that that AEW could do because one thing that I was just like, man, they're showing us the vignettes, and I get what they're doing from a production standpoint. They're kind of running it all, so there's very little editing that they have to do in the back end. Totally understand that. Save money, save costs, but at the same time, you're draining out your fans. So is that really going to be worth the saving at the end of the day? Because I didn't need to see what was happening backstage and who said what to whoever. That could have been inserted in post-production, or just leave it alone. So that's one thing that they could do easily in the future.
SPEAKER_01For sure. It helps with a storyline, though. So it's like, yes, you and I are not diehard AEW. We're not watching every show until Tony Khan gives us a contract that we are exactly, you know, fully all elite. Totally elite, and we get paid. But um I enjoyed the vignettes because it helped me kind of continue to figure out these storylines that we're not privy to.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, but then again, you have the diehard fans that are going to AEW that they're just like, oh, you know, it's like this is how they are watching the show. So it kind of helps like with the show itself. Um, but I totally understand what you're saying too. It's like, yeah, we didn't need to see all that bullshit, but at the same time, it's the show. All that bullshit. We're seeing the matches, we're seeing what's happened before the matches, we're seeing the vignettes after the matches that kind of like weed it all together.
SPEAKER_00Reminded me of this real quick.
SPEAKER_01You just said a bunch of shit and we gotta cover it all.
SPEAKER_00Yep, that's pretty much what AEW was, all right. So, um, you know, one other thing, yeah, AEW, uh, big shout out to them. They they opened their arms and their doors to us, and we got to experience it. Uh, did you follow up and watch AEW uh last night, Dynamite? No, you didn't, neither did that. Let's be honest.
SPEAKER_01No, I I didn't watch it, but I mean, I think I honestly I had intentions to watch it. Yeah, um, but of course, I'm on my phone and I saw all of the results. Yeah. So I was like, okay, I don't need to go back and watch unless I was really interested in watching however long the match was. Um the matches were.
SPEAKER_00Um so pretty much big news was that Kenny Omega is now the AEW heavyweight champion. And there was a stipulation, so it's almost like he had to win. Stipulation was if he lost to MJF, he could never challenge for the championship again. So of course he did win. He beat MJF. Uh spoiler alert, and sorry, those people who are still gonna watch it. Uh go back and watch it though. I'm sure it was a great match. Uh, you know, I will definitely watch it by next week, so I can give you my review, even though it probably won't matter. But uh I'm sure every single storyline that that uh that happened this past week is completely different. Yes, and the dogs will be there and we'll either be booing or cheering. That's one thing that one of our friends said. He's a you know, you start off booing the dogs and then you cheer them, then all of a sudden you go back to having to boo them because of what they're doing. So you don't even know what they're doing. So that's another thing about AEW. Same with the Death Riders.
SPEAKER_01We didn't know they were good guys that came in towards the end of the show and they're beating up people that we like, and like what, but we just cheered you. Why why you beat the crap out of Switchblade and the guns when I I don't know. So, I mean, there is oh god, do we want to get into one more rumor?
SPEAKER_00Oh, you go ahead.
SPEAKER_01What'd you mean? So I'm I've I've heard rumors now that Moxley might be wrapping things up in AEW. Um, and apparently on WWEShop.com they just re-released uh a Shield t-shirt. Really? Yes, saw that today, the shirt. Um, but yeah, I think it's been um kind of rumored lately that Moxley might be wrapping up, or I should say wrapping up. I think that his contract is coming up in AEW, um, and nothing has been out there about him re-signing yet. Um again, rumors, rumors, rumors.
SPEAKER_00I think that is a definitely a big rumor because like also WWE released it looked like some retro tees. So the retro Seth Throllins, uh the big SR. Yeah, but he's still there.
SPEAKER_01I mean, but he's still relevant. There's no shield anymore. So I I I see what you're saying. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, there's no NWO, there's NWO gear that just came out celebrating 30 years. Too sweet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but like is this like uh 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_00Two out of the three are passed away. Huh? I said two out of the three are passed away.
SPEAKER_01True. But it's uh if it's an anniversary type of thing that they're releasing these shirts. So anyway, I know. Oh yeah, 15 years of the shield. Death riders, huh?
SPEAKER_0015 years of the shield. Oh, so there it is. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, I think it's funny. It just says men's black the shield justice isn't free, retro T. Right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they just so so there's a lot of people looking into that, knowing that Moxley's contract um is almost up, and then with this whole Roman vs. Seth for the title at um at SummerSlam, is Moxley gonna show up? Is he gonna help one or the other? Is he gonna help Seth basically? Um, because Roman has not ever beat Seth. So but yeah, so that was kind of the confusing part. And AEW was with Moxley and the Death Riders, and they are attacking baby faces when they should be baby faces, and you kind of see Moxley being somewhat of a baby face um to uh Will Ospreay, um, kind of handing him the Death Riders patch at the beginning of Collision. And again, there's so many names and so many different storylines, and it's just so tough to keep up with on AEW, where that's where I was kind of like, well, maybe if Moxley's done, this is kind of making more and more sense, where they're kind of just doing whatever and going after whoever and seeing what shit sticks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean I don't know. I I definitely don't want to see Moxley in WWE again.
SPEAKER_01No, I think they'll ruin and burn his character.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I don't. And it's funny because I was watching uh the uh Dark Side of the Ring, Jeff Jarrett.
SPEAKER_01I need to walk okay. That was on my list to watch today, and I got caught up in uh World Cup.
SPEAKER_00Dude, so good.
SPEAKER_01But next week is is week is the second part of it, so I might just wait to next week. Oh I'm flying home to Boston. Okay, there's three, there's three, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Damn it.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I was gonna actually watch it on my flight.
SPEAKER_00I saw a little bit of his interview with the CVV and I saw a little bit of his interview with Ariel. It was good.
SPEAKER_01The C V V, I can't stand Ariel.
SPEAKER_00You know what's funny is like I I I respect his questions, and but I I just don't feel like it's very um what's the word? Not genuine, but I just don't feel like I don't know.
SPEAKER_01He's too ESP, he's too interviewe.
SPEAKER_00He's not it's not conversational.
SPEAKER_01CVV, thank you. There you go. CVV is conversational, he's personable. But uh I do appreciate his uh podcasts a lot more. But yeah, I watched the Jeff Jarrett CVV, which was I thought which was really cool. Um, the Big E C V.
SPEAKER_00So I haven't seen that one yet.
SPEAKER_01So I honestly fell, I didn't fall asleep, but I zoned in and out of it. Um, the story, everything that they talked about is great. Big E talks a lot. This was the first interview of C V V where I'm just like he can barely even get a question in because Big E rambles.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow. So you didn't see uh CVV and uh Ray Kali yet?
SPEAKER_01No, I might skip that one. Why is that? I don't I've I've never really been the biggest Kali fan, so I didn't know like what's very interesting.
SPEAKER_00Like what I saw a few clips of it, it's very interesting. Like how he talks about like how he can't walk around the streets of India because he gets mobbed because he's he's one of the biggest celebrities out there. And and it's like, yeah, they're that he asked him. He's like, he's like, Are you like you know, a big celebrity? He's like, Well, I can't walk around in public anymore, you know. Damn, so yeah, I'll definitely check it.
SPEAKER_01I I I like having the afternoon. The the life of being unemployed sucks because I legit will just one o'clock hits, I will pop on a CVV podcast and I will lay outside by the pool and just listen.
SPEAKER_00The only thing is that when you might need to watch it with the subtitles to see what he's really saying. I was gonna ask you about that, but I didn't know if I should say it on the podcast. I'll say it. I was just like, uh, what's this man saying right now? Oh it's almost like when um CVV had um Will Sasso and who was the other guy? Dan does the Macho Man voice. Oh dude, that one's that one's good, but they do the their ADD definitely kicks in because they go off on random tangents. Oh god, and it's like they're both doing impressions like for like a good solid few minutes. I'm like, all right, kind of wrap it up. Let's get down to a normal voice, please. But that one's really entertaining. Check it out.
SPEAKER_01I think there's another one, uh Finn Balor, I think, just came out CVV. Yes. Is that the newest one?
SPEAKER_00No, the newest one, I believe, is Great Kali or Jeff Jarrett. I thought I saw no Finn already came out. Finn came out a little.
SPEAKER_01Maybe it was a replay, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00All right, well, on that note, let's uh let's give our people our socials, Gary's at G Dubs33 on Instagram.
SPEAKER_01We've got at TowersPowerPod on X and at Gary underscore Dubin on X.
SPEAKER_00And don't forget at Towers of PowerPod on IG and TikTok. And of course, mine is at HollywoodChris. And like I say, at the end of every podcast, we are in the Rust community just like you. So go ahead and make sure you like, subscribe, share this podcast. And if you have any questions, you want to DM us, go for it because we are all over the place on social media. And we will see you guys again next time.
SPEAKER_01Later.